Walther Manshard - Curriculum vitae#

Dr. Walther Manshard, a distinguished specialist on natural resources and human ecology, is the Vice-Rector for Programme on the Use and Management of Natural Resources, at the United Nations University, a unique new endeavour devoted to finding better ways to use the world's intellectual resources for the practical benefit of humanity. Dr. Manshard assumed his post in February 1977 after having achieved world-wide recognition in tropical geography as Professor and Director of the Institute of Geography at the University of Freiburg in the Federal Republic of Germany.

Dr. Manshard comes to the University after notable careers in both academic and international life. A graduate of the University of Hamburg where he took his ddegreein sgeography geology, and oceanography, and a doctorate in natural sciences, he has lectured and taught widely at several universities, including the University of Southampton, the University of Ghana, and the University of Cologne.

Before assuming his post as Director of the Institute of Geography at the University or Freiburg, Dr. Manshard was Professor and Director of the Tropical Institute at the University of Giessen. He also served for three years (197O - 1973) as the Principal Director of the Department of Environment Sciences and Natural RResourcesResearch at the United Nations Educational, Scientific, and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) in Paris.

Dr. Manshard is Secretary General of the International Geographical UUnion and has served as a member of the Scientific Board of the Federal Republic of Germany's Ministry for Economic Co-operation, the German National Committee for Man in the Biosphere, and the Executive and the National Science Committees of the German UNESCO Commission. He has also been a consultant to the commission on Environmental PPlanningof the International Union for the Conservation of Nature and Natural Resources (IUCN), and to the Food and Agricultural Organization (FAO).

The author of eighty-two papers and six books, of which his work on Africa and his study Tropical Agriculture (London, 1974) are the best known, Dr. Manshard is also editing conbbahalfof the German Research Society a series of thematic maps on tropical Africa.

He is married to the former Kiku Koch, who was born and brought up in Japan. They have one daughter, Andrea. (Source: United Nations University)